title: Effects of d-amphetamine, diazepam, and pentobarbital on the schedule-controlled pecking and locomotor activity of pigeons.
abstract: Pigeons were trained on a variant of the autoshaping procedure devised by Matthews and Lerer (1987) in which a keylight stimulus ramp of increasing brightness signaled the passing of a 30-s interfood interval. This procedure generates two distinct behavioral components: key pecking and locomotor activity. The effects of three psychoactive drugs on these behavior classes were measured. d-Amphetamine had negligible effects on both types of behavior, whereas diazepam and pentobartital increased key pecking and decreased activity in a dose-dependent fashion. In Experiment 2, the possibility that drug effects were suppressed by excessively strong stimulus control exerted in Experiment 1 was tested by decreasing the discriminability of the stimulus ramp. The direction of the effects of diazepam and pentobarbital was the same as in Experiment 1 but the magnitude of the effects tended to be larger. The effects of d-amphetamine, however, remained quite small, suggesting that, under these conditions, locomotor activity and key pecking are less sensitive to d-amphetamine. In Experiments 3 and 4, key pecking was eliminated by removing the keylight. Reinforcers were presented at fixed intervals in Experiment 3 and at variable intervals in Experiment 4. The drug effects on activity observed in Experiments 1 and 2 disappeared in both Experiments 3 and 4. The results suggest that diazepam and pentobarbital affect activity indirectly by increasing key-pecking behavior, which, in turn, competitively decreases activity.
authors.affiliation: New York University.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bordi
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Matthews
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D010856:Columbidae; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects*; D003913:Dextroamphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003975:Diazepam / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects*; D010424:Pentobarbital / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule
chemical_list: D010424:Pentobarbital; D003975:Diazepam; D003913:Dextroamphetamine